From the archives: Debora Green seeks hearing after killing children, poisoning Michael Farrar
This story was originally published Sept. 17, 2004.
Debora Green won the first round Thursday in her quest to withdraw no contest pleas to murdering two of her children in a 1995 fire.
A Johnson County judge ruled that the former Prairie Village doctor will be allowed to present evidence that her attorneys say casts doubt on the evidence of arson relied on by prosecutors.
The same evidence was also relied upon by Green and her lawyers when the decision to enter the pleas was made, the defense contends.
“I am aware that the state can produce substantial evidence that I set the fire that caused the death of my children,” Green said in court at her 1996 plea hearing.
Advances in the science of arson investigation since 1995 show that other phenomena could have been responsible for damage attributed to the use of flammable liquids, defense attorneys Angela Keck and Jessica Travis argued in legal papers and in court Thursday.
“What they had was voodoo science,” Travis argued.
Green, now 53, is serving a life sentence at the Topeka Correctional Facility. She did not speak at Thursday’s hearing in Johnson County District Court.
Her 13-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter died in the fire that swept through their Prairie Village home. Green and a 10-year-old daughter escaped.
Her surviving daughter, now 19, attended Thursday’s hearing and sat with a group of people supporting Green.
Green’s former husband, Michael Farrar, sat in a different part of the courtroom.
Green also was convicted of attempting to kill him with poison before the fire. She is not asking to withdraw that plea.
District Attorney Paul Morrison, who prosecuted Green in 1995 and 1996, argued Thursday against granting Green a new hearing.
“The evidence of arson is absolutely irrefutable,” Morrison argued.
He said that Green had benefited from a plea agreement to avoid a possible death sentence and should not be automatically entitled to a new hearing after serving less than 10 years in prison.
Morrison said the defense was not offering new science and was not taking into account the circumstances surrounding the fire, including a volatile telephone argument between Green and her estranged husband a short time before the fire broke out and earlier threats she had made.
District Judge Peter Ruddick said that he would allow the hearing so the defense could present the evidence.
Green’s attorneys ultimately hope that based on their new evidence, Green will be allowed to withdraw her pleas. The hearing on the arson evidence was scheduled for Oct. 12.
Even though she was granted a hearing, the judge noted that under Kansas law she has an “extremely high” burden to meet to be allowed to withdraw the pleas.
After the hearing Morrison said that if Green were allowed to withdraw the pleas and was granted a chance to take the case to trial, “we’ll be more than happy to put the death penalty back on the table.”
Another attorney who represented Green cited her fear of the death penalty when she dropped an earlier request to withdraw her pleas in 2000.
That request was based on assertions that her decision to enter the pleas was tainted by medication she was taking for mental problems.
